This is my latest venture on an unknown species of Cedar that was collected from an old home sight .

It is actually the lower branch of the tree that had ground layered itself in several places , at the time of collection the branch was 90mm thick at the trunk and well over 3 metres in length.I severed the branch at the 1st layer and again at the 2nd layer to allow easy transportation and for the purpose of 2 different styles of trainers.

This particular layer was about 1500mm high with a 70mm trunk, however the foliage was only on the uppermost part of the tree . I used dynamic lifter as a power-feeding fertilizer over winter and seasol power feed from early spring and the new growth speaks for itself .Healthy enough in my eyes to tackle the trunk splitting process to reduce the height and to twist and contort the live veins into something out of the ordinary.

Using a drill , i drilled a series of pilot holes along the natural shari from lower down the trunk to the apex . Then with a jigsaw i simply cut the trunk from the base to the top ,with branch-cutters i removed the excess hardwood then cleaned up and thinned out the wood with a dremel .

The trunk was cleaned and seperated ,then wired and shaped into a twisted , contorted design that will be allowed to grow on .

The final design will be determined by the foliage growth and dead-wood that will present itself over time .The overall height of the trainer now is a mere 650mm from the collected height of around 1500mm , not a bad result for 4 hours work .Cheers and happy bonsai

Hi Taffyman , it would have been nicer to have been a juniper . But i think the idea should work out ,i may shape a central shari and Pheonix Graft it into the center and wind the live viens around that increasing the height back up to about 800mm with a finished height of around 950mm with the top 150mm jinned .

No sign of wilt or drooping in our 40+degree temps so it should be a winner . While it is in the current phase i will set a couple of Inarching grafts lower down using the apexes of the branches as fillers for the base above the fork ,that will give more material to work with later on .Cheers